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Attitudes towards legalising physician provided euthanasia in Britain: The role of religion over time

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  • Danyliv, Andriy
  • O'Neill, Ciaran

Abstract

Hastening the death of another whether through assisted suicide or euthanasia is the subject of intense debate in the UK and elsewhere. In this paper we use a nationally representative survey of public attitudes – the British Social Attitudes survey – to examine changes in attitudes to the legalisation of physician provided euthanasia (PPE) over almost 30 years (1983–2012) and the role of religious beliefs and religiosity in attitudes over time. Compatible questions about attitudes to euthanasia were available in the six years of 1983, 1984, 1989, 1994, 2005, and 2012. We study the trends in the support for legalisation through these time points and the relationship between attitudes, religious denomination and religiosity, controlling for a series of covariates. In total, 8099 individuals provided answers to the question about PPE in the six years of the study. The support for legalisation rose from around 76.95% in 1983 to 83.86% in 2012. This coincided with an increase in secularisation exhibited in the survey: the percentage of people with no religious affiliation increasing from 31% to 45.4% and those who do not attend a religious institution (e.g. church) increasing from 55.7% to 65.03%. The multivariate analysis demonstrates that religious affiliation and religiosity as measured by religious institution attendance frequency are the main contributors to attitudes towards euthanasia, and that the main increase in support happened among the group with least religious affiliation. Other socio-demographic characteristics do not seem to alter these attitudes systematically across the years. Our study demonstrates an increase in the support of euthanasia legalisation in Britain in the last 30 years coincided with increased secularisation. It does not follow, however, that trends in public support are immutable nor that a change in the law would improve on the current pragmatic approach toward hastening death by a physician adopted in England and Wales in terms of the balance between compassion and safeguards against abuse offered.

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  • Danyliv, Andriy & O'Neill, Ciaran, 2015. "Attitudes towards legalising physician provided euthanasia in Britain: The role of religion over time," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 52-56.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:128:y:2015:i:c:p:52-56
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.12.030
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Seale, Clive & Addington-Hall, Julia, 1995. "Euthanasia: The role of good care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 581-587, March.
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    3. Caddell, David P. & Newton, Rae R., 1995. "Euthanasia: American attitudes toward the physician's role," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(12), pages 1671-1681, June.
    4. Seale, Clive & Addington-Hall, Julia, 1994. "Euthanasia: Why people want to die earlier," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 647-654, September.
    5. O'Neill, C. & Feenan, D. & Hughes, C. & McAlister, D. A., 2003. "Physician and family assisted suicide: results from a study of public attitudes in Britain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 721-731, August.
    6. Anderson, James G. & Caddell, David P., 1993. "Attitudes of medical professionals toward euthanasia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 105-114, July.
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    1. Keren Dopelt & Dganit Cohen & Einat Amar-Krispel & Nadav Davidovitch & Paul Barach, 2021. "Facing Death: Attitudes toward Physician-Assisted End of Life among Physicians Working at a Tertiary-Care-Hospital in Israel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-11, June.
    2. Sarah Vilpert & Carmen Borrat-Besson & Gian Domenico Borasio & Jürgen Maurer, 2020. "Associations of end-of-life preferences and trust in institutions with public support for assisted suicide evidence from nationally representative survey data of older adults in Switzerland," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Damon Proulx & David A. Savage, 2020. "What Determines End-of-Life Attitudes? Revisiting the Dutch Experience," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 1085-1125, December.

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